Yesterday I spent some time at a conference with a group of business owners, and the topic was artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on small to medium businesses. If I’m being honest, it was a bit mind-blowing.
Not just in terms of what AI can do today, but how quickly everything is moving. The presenter showed multiple practical examples of where different platforms were in November and then just how far they’d come and what they were producing in January. The progress in just three months was hard to fathom.
Sitting in that room, you could feel two very different reactions.
For some, it was excitement. The idea that we can do more with less and the leverage that AI will bring in ways that were either never possible before or were constrained by our skills or the budgets available to engage those skills. Tasks that used to be specialised or would take hours if not days are now being done in minutes and seconds.
For others, it was uncertainty, and even a bit of fear.
And both reactions are completely valid.
Because when something moves this fast, it naturally creates disruption. It challenges the way we’ve always done things. It forces us to rethink where we spend our time, how we build teams, and even what “work” looks like going forward.
But the perspective I walked away with, and the opinion I feel strongly about, is that AI is not something to ignore. It is something to explore.
You don’t need to become an AI expert overnight. You don’t need to rebuild your entire business model this week. But there is a real advantage in testing and measuring, being curious, asking questions, learning, and exploring just enough to understand what’s possible.
The business owners who take small steps now will be the ones who create disproportionate leverage over the next few years.
If we think back 20+ years to the introduction of email and the internet, and when they first started impacting our lives and businesses, I dabbled in understanding some of the technology. I even learnt how to write a few basic lines of HTML, but I didn’t fully exploit the internet’s potential. It still required a lot of skill and knowledge.
AI is far more accessible than that, and personally I’m not going to make the same mistake as I did with the internet. I’m going all in to understand how I can unlock as much potential as possible.
I’m not one for outlandish opinion or hyperbole, but I think AI has the potential to be 100 times more impactful than the internet in a significantly shorter time frame.
At EBS we’re exploring how AI can help create leverage in our business, and we’re also planning more education for the community.
Whilst we work through some more of those plans, here’s some value I saw yesterday that you might want to test and measure.
One of the simplest examples that came out of the session was a tool called Wispr Flow.
I’m actually turning it on myself today.
The app’s catch cry is “Don’t type, just speak.” You might say you can already do this on your iPhone or in ChatGPT, which is true, but Wispr Flow takes it to another level.
At its core, it allows you to speak your thoughts and have them instantly captured, structured, and turned into usable output such as emails, notes, ideas, and even content like this.
Where it becomes powerful for business owners is how seamlessly it fits into your day-to-day workflow.
You can press a single key on your keyboard, start talking, and have your words turned into a polished email or message. Instead of typing responses to clients or team members, you simply speak and have it drafted, structured, and ready to send.
You can respond to emails using your voice, which dramatically speeds up communication and reduces time stuck behind a screen.
You can dictate meeting notes immediately after a conversation while everything is still fresh, without needing to go back and write them up later.
You can capture ideas on the fly, whether you’re in the car, walking between meetings, or stepping out of a client visit, and have them organised into something usable. This is incredibly practical for sharing job updates with your team or preparing for the next estimate or quote.
It integrates into the tools you’re already using, so you’re not adding another layer of complexity. You’re actually simplifying how work gets done.
Over time, it starts to learn your tone, your style, and the way you communicate, which means the output becomes increasingly aligned with how you naturally operate.
For a small business owner, this is where the leverage starts to become very real. Less friction, faster communication, clearer thinking, and importantly, more time back to focus on leading the business.
We’ll keep sharing things we’re seeing and testing in the AI space.
But if you take anything from this, don’t sit back and watch this space evolve. Step into it, even just a little, and start building your understanding. Once you begin experimenting, it’s far less confronting than it might seem.
Whether we like it or not, this wave is coming, and for those who are prepared to engage with it, even at a basic level, the upside is enormous.
Ever more with ever less is no longer just a goal.
It is a reality that is available to all of us right now.
Cheers,
Darren Gloster
CEO – Australia & New Zealand
Entrepreneurial Business School
